preview

Tuskegee Syphilis Paper

Good Essays

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
Name
University of Phoenix

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment The Tuskegee Syphilis experiment was a 40 years study from 1932 to 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama. The experiment was conducted on a group of 399 impoverished and illiterate African American sharecroppers. This disease was not; however revealed to them by the US Government. They were told they were going to receive treatment for bad blood. The study proved to be one of the most horrendous studies carried out that disregarded the basic ethical principles of conduct. It symbolized medical and disregard for human life. Standard medical treatment at the time were toxic, dangerous and, often time questionable in respect to effect. Some of the studies …show more content…

These 399 subjects were like lab rats with no value. The only offer these men received free physicals, free rides and hot meals on examination days, free treatment for their ailment and burial strip end paid to their survivors ($50, 000)(Hiltner, 1973). Failure to obtain consent and an offer of incentive for participation indicated that PHS doctors were indeed performing immoral and unethical study on human beings with total lack of human rights and life. But most of these individuals in the study had no idea that their rights were violated. Since, this experiment went on for many years no one knew any better since they thought everything that was happening during this study was what they were suppose to experience (Timeline, 2008).

For 40 year experimentation, a high price had been paid for this knowledge. Men had died; wives and their children had been infected because of the science and research (CDC, 2008). Little imagination is needed to ascribe racial attitudes toward the white government officials who took part in running this experiment but what about all the African Americans who took part with them. The experiments name came from a Tuskegee Institute that was a black university founded by Booker T. Washington. The affiliated hospital gave the PHS its medical facility to use during these studies that was a predominately black facility. Most of the individuals that were working on the experiment were black doctors and nurses

Get Access